Building ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’: How Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley Brought the Ultimate Nerd Property to Movie Theaters

Chris Pine and Hugh Grant hit the red carpet with their co-stars for the premiere of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves held at Zoopalast on Monday night (March 20) in Berlin, Germany.

Regé-Jean Page is embracing his inner nerd.

Chris Pine admits making good films is a roll of the dice.

Rege-Jean Page and Justice Smith are continuing the Dungeons & Dragons press tour!

Atom Tickets. The event also marks Prime’s first early-access screening partnership since before the pandemic.

adores it. The beloved table-top game, which was introduced nearly 50 years ago, is just that: beloved — which is why it might be puzzling that it took so many years for the property to be adapted for the screen.

With Hollywood now turning to franchises like “The Last of Us” and “Borderlands” in the search for new audiences, it might be safe to say that video games are no longer the untapped frontier of adaptations. And that might mean it is the tabletop industry’s time to shine.

I have friends who’ve played table-top, role playing, and fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), but I haven’t played ever. My friends tell me I’m missing out by not playing, but none of them will explain and teach me how to play, but what I’ve learned is that players can create their own characters and adventures. Whether Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves keeps true to the spirit of the game, I can’t say. However,  as a film, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein’s execution pays off in a major way. Written by Daley, Goldstein, and Michael Gilio, the movie has an all-star cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Daisy Head.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Introducing “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” the lavish hyperkinetic popcorn fairy tale that kicked off SXSW this evening, the film’s co-directors, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, told the audience that they had designed the movie to appeal to hardcore D&D players — and also to those who know absolutely nothing about the game. This came as a relief to me, since what I know about Dungeons & Dragons you could put on the head of a…well, I know so little that I can’t even come up with a proper D&D reference with which to spin that cliché. The filmmakers were being honest. “Honor Among Thieves” is built on the edifice of D&D lore, packed with totems and characters and Easter eggs that fans of the legendary role-playing game will drink in with a connoisseur’s delight. But for those, like me, who have spent their lives avoiding anything to do with Dungeons & Dragons, the film is eminently comprehensible and, in its you’ve-seen-it-before-but-not-quite-this-way fashion, a lot of fun.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” stole the hearts of the audience at its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 10, no matter whether or not they’d played the 50-year old role playing game that shares its title. The action comedy stars Chris Pine as a rakish bard named Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez as his platonic life-partner, the tough-as-nails warrior, Holga. The two set off on a quest to reunite Edgin with his estranged daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), and they wind up working with Xenk (Regé-Jean Page), a valorous paladin; Simon (Justice Smith), a sorcerer with an inferiority complex; and Doric (Sophia Lillis), a no-nonsense shapeshifting druid. Rounding out the cast are Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam, Edgin and Holga’s untrustworthy former compatriot; and Daisy Head as Sofina, a powerful wizard who is more than she initially seems.

As co-director Johnathan Goldstein put it, “nobody had done it justice,” but tonight when it came to the big screen take of Dungeons & Dragons by the filmmaker, his co-director John Francis DaleyParamount, eOne did as the movie received a rock-concert reception on the opening night of SXSW.

Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez headed straight to their fans at the 2023 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas.

John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein return to SXSW this year with “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” which kicks off the Austin-based festival today. And in the lead-up to the film’s world premiere, the directing duo had some scoop for Variety about why they left another big-budget project due in theaters this year, DC Studios‘ “The Flash.” READ MORE: New ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ International Trailer: Chris Pine & Co.

Tame Impala have released a new single ‘Wings Of Time’ for the upcoming fantasy adventure film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.Out now, ‘Wings Of Time’ is a prog-y track that blends rock and indie-folk with soaring choruses, galloping drums and bass as frontman Kevin Parker sings “Do you see the wings of time? / Do you feel a sense of pride now? / Do you know you’ll never fly alone?”Listen to ‘Wings Of Time’ below.Speaking on the song, Parker said via a press release: “Being asked to do a track for the D&D soundtrack seemed like an unmissable opportunity to indulge in my long time love of fantasy prog rock.”Parker enlisted Pond frontman Nicholas Allbrook to help him with crafting the song, saying Allbrook was “the person I know appreciates this subject matter the most”.“We rented a villa in Spain, that kind of felt like a castle, for two nights whilst on tour for Primavera. That location got us in the right frame of mind and it went from there.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have been to the SXSW Film Festival twice before — for 2013’s “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” which they wrote, and 2019’s “Stuber,” which they produced. But when the pair debut the action-comedy “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” as the opening film of the annual Austin event this Friday, it will be the first time they’ve done so as directors. They couldn’t be more excited. “It’s the perfect setting for this movie,” Goldstein says, sitting in the Paramount lot office he shares with Daley, for an interview with Variety about the release of their latest movie. “It feels like the quintessential South By film,” Daley adds. “It’s big and all-encompassing but there’s also something a little bit subversive about it.”

Hugh Grant is reflecting on throwing a temper tantrum on set of hist latest movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Hugh Grant recognizes that he loses his temper at times.

Throughout the last decade-plus, movie audiences have tasted all sorts of different adaptations: video games, book-to-film, comic books, and the like. But a more uncommon adaption formula is the board game movie.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.The actor, who plays rogue character Forge Fitzwilliam in the upcoming fantasy film, said he thought the woman was a studio executive on the set, when she was actually a chaperone of a young child actor.Speaking to Total Film (via Yahoo! Entertainment), Grant said: “I lost my temper with a woman in my eyeline on day one. I assumed she was some executive from the studio who should have known better.

Hugh Grant is one of the most charismatic actors of the past 30 years. However, he’s also known as one of the most volatile to deal with in person.